Is it a VPN you can easily turn ON and OFF? Personally I don't do anything related to banking or on line shopping, where you give credit card details, through a VPN. I only turn it ON if I need to. Also where does the VPN give you an IP address. It's no good being provided with an IP address in Poland or Russia if you want one in the UK for example. Otherwise it can be useful to have access to a VPN if you need one.

Most VPN's are useless. Try it out before you spend any money. I've tried several to be able to access the BBC, who have locked their doors to foreign viewers this year. The BBC, like most large commercial organisations, can easily see that you are using a VPN. Your access is then disabled.

VPNs use a connection to a server in another country, from which you then access the wbsite or service you are looking for.

In spite of their claims, this will slow down access, to streaming TV, for example. As VPN use has become popular, companies have set up systems that routinely check for VPN use, it is very simple to do. While it will not affect all services, try it out with the service you want to access and bear in mind that it might stop if the sevice implements VPN bans.

Most VPN's are useless. Try it out before you spend any money. I've tried several to be able to access the BBC, who have locked their doors to foreign viewers this year. The BBC, like most large commercial organisations, can easily see that you are using a VPN. Your access is then disabled.

VPNs use a connection to a server in another country, from which you then access the wbsite or service you are looking for.

We've used a VPN service for several years to access the BBC. They've not blocked us yet. Try UKTVPlus.

YoMo2 wrote:We've used a VPN service for several years to access the BBC. They've not blocked us yet. Try UKTVPlus.

Andrew

Hi AndrewI note that these people are based in Crete. Do you think that has any bearing on their apparent reliability, given the problems other providers seem to constantly have? I'm probably going to be looking for a decent VPN next year. (Retirement beckons! )

Norton Security (Symantec) are currently plugging their VPN to their subscribers because of the so-called KRACK security flaw which has just been discovered to attack almost any device that uses wifi -- that's just about everything, right?! That's the bad news. The good news is that KRACK does not attack by downloading from the internet, but by intercepting your wifi signal, so you'd be very unlucky for it to attack your home network. Unlocked public wifi, such as in cafes and restaurants, is much more vulnerable. From what I've read about it, Microsoft had already updated their security before the news about KRACK was released. The bit I don't quite understand -- which I'm sure you techies out there will be able to explain -- is exactly how a VPN would make you more secure if you continue to use wifi, as opposed to an ethernet cable, between your device and your router.

YoMo2 wrote:We've used a VPN service for several years to access the BBC. They've not blocked us yet. Try UKTVPlus.

Andrew

Hi AndrewI note that these people are based in Crete. Do you think that has any bearing on their apparent reliability, given the problems other providers seem to constantly have? I'm probably going to be looking for a decent VPN next year. (Retirement beckons! )

Tim

Tim, they have a local contact who supports local users, but the servers etc are in UK. They have occasional technical hitches like anyone else, but I've never been blocked by the BBC or ITV. They have a choice of UK servers, and switching servers usually resolves any temporary problem.